Directions, Directives, Distortions and self-Discipline: Saturn, Eris, Mercury and Venus

 The Judgment of Paris by Carel van Savoyen 

Here’s the overview:

Monday, June 25th: Saturn will go direct at 22 Libra, in opposition to Eris at 22 Aries.

Tuesday, June 26th: Mercury enters Leo.

Wednesday, June 27th: Venus will go direct at 7 Gemini.

Let’s tackle the ‘sidebar’ commentaries first. Venus retrograde has been an exhausting slog for most of us. It’s been trying and disappointing. We’ve felt unappreciated, misunderstood, maybe unnoticed…and needs of all kinds have gone unmet.

But as we say this, let’s remember that while Venus has been in retrograde, a slam-bang solar eclipse occurred at 0 Gemini. And  Gemini is the sign Venus has been retrograding in.

Astrologically, that gives us two important ideas to bear in mind:

1. Because Venus went into retrograde prior to the eclipse, the eclipse’s full effects will not fully manifest until AFTER Venus goes direct.

2. Venus retrograding in the sign of May’s solar eclipse will drag the ‘eclipsing’ effects (or the feeling of being ‘eclipsed’) out for the duration of Venus’ retrograde. Since Venus’ retrograde has been in the ‘mentality’ and communication sign of Gemini, that’s the clue that it’s not surprising that this Venus retrograde would be particularly draining or taxing on the mental and ‘do I really have to deal with this?’ level.

Of course there’s also the idea that where the mind won’t go, so the rest of us doesn’t go. (Or at least we don’t go willingly!) So even doing things which ordinarily have felt easy, fun, etc. …during this time they’ve been less joyous, maybe even non-joyous. And our focus on the job? It’s been less than we would like it to have been, too.

A suggestion here…tuck this away: a few months from now when governments and corporations around the world release reports about productivity, debt, balance of trade and all that good stuff for this May/June period, expect to hear nasty numbers.

It’s about then that we’re all going to recognize what this Venus retrograde has really cost us.

And yet, this Venus retrograde in the sign of the eclipse IS a useful tool. It’s meant to get us to let go of that which is not getting us where we want to go. It’s meant to get us to think through our choices, our current priorities, and where life is showing us we need to change. Difficulties of today are supposed to lead to changes. A lot of people are just trying to ‘tough it through.’ That’s not the answer.

And if you thought this eclipse was a hard one, just wait…November’s eclipse is going to be a whole other level of karmic sorting.

That said, on to June 2012’s other vice and viceroy: Saturn opposition Eris.

Saturn came into orb of opposition to Eris back in April of this year. Since then, most of us have felt something. Some problem, some challenge…squeezing us ever more tightly. Something encroaching on our space, our mind, our sense of ownership of 'our' world.

 The Saturnic Library (Saturnische Bibliothek)

by Mersmann de Jungere (1960)

Being that Saturn is involved, we know part of what’s involved is nature’s desire that we grow. Saturn is all about ‘slow growth’ – the type which is lasting, durable and structural. And when we use Saturn badly, it manifests as limitations, blockades, rejections and loss.

That is…except when we have outgrown something. Then Saturn still manifests as limitations and blockades, rejections and feelings of loss, but that’s because we know the time has come to move on.

With Saturn in Libra, the two main venues for all this ‘Saturn stuff’ is twofold: relationships and how we are received and approved of (or rejected) in our professional life.

Against this, we have Eris.

  Orbital diagram of Eris and the inner planets as

diagrammed by JPL's small body database

browser. Considering that it takes ).

Known to the Romans as Discordia, the precept of Eris is all about motivation – specifically, our motivation. Like all objects which orbit beyond Neptune, Eris seems to operate as an ‘evocative’ mechanism. In other words, when Eris is felt, we feel our Self being prodded, provoked, evoked and yes, being called on.

So Eris is ‘discord’ in the sense that none of us like being provoked.

Yet there is another side of Eris – that of being provoking. So maybe you’re on the receiving end of the Eris thing now…maybe you’re on the giving end. Maybe a little bit (or a lot) of both is in the air.

Because this is an opposition, there is a tendency for everybody to project. So we think ‘I’m not doing anything – it’s their fault.’ Or their doing. Or they’re just not playing along with the way things have always been.

Have always been?

 

Part of what Saturn-opposition-Eris is about is a period in which situations are forcing us all to change. That’s at the heart of this passage, and many are doing just that – changing. They’re changing what they do, they’re changing how they go about doing it. They’re changing how they ‘deliver’ what they do to the world (in person or through whatever work product or services they provide).

 

This Saturn/Eris dynamic is all about getting us to be honest – first and last with our Self. It’s about purifying the process and raising our standards so that they will work…and as Saturn moves on into Scorpio later this year, so they will endure.

 

WARNING: This November’s solar eclipse will be at 21 Scorpio. By then, Saturn will be in Scorpio. Those who are trying to ‘skate by’ now are going to experience the bite of karma as we come into the September auspices of the eclipse’s breakdown period, to be followed by Saturn entering Scorpio in October.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

But this isn’t to panic over. More effectively, this is all about getting over our own reluctance(s).That’s at the heart of this Saturn/Eris in opposition. It’s not about ‘them’ and what ‘they’re’ doing, not doing or thinking of doing, undoing or redoing.

 

It’s about us. Situations which are currently making us miserable, down in the dumps, things which are exhausting us and prodding us – those are all issues which are meant to get us to (as the saying goes) clean up our act.

 

Saturn in Libra is at one level, all about honesty. Liars do get caught under Saturn in Libra. Shoddy work is found out under Saturn in Libra. Deficiencies in how we interact with others do come out under Saturn in Libra.

And then comes Saturn in Scorpio. At some level Saturn in Scorpio is easiest on those who have had a falling down, a falling out, a really hard time under Saturn in Libra. They know they’re in a ‘rebuilding’ phase and they know what the problem was which tripped them up or toppled their castle. Because of that, they’re more apt to be aligned along the Saturn in Scorpio path to success, a path which asks us to find solutions which work for everyone. Scorpio rewards where everybody gets an equal amount of what they consider valuable, which includes our not choosing what they “should” or “shouldn’t” think is valuable.

 A Scorpio coin (photo credit: Permjak)

 

You watch…during the 2.5 years that Saturn is in Scorpio, we’re going to see some huge errors in judgment which stem from people making assumptions about what’s “good” for others in some very big and important arenas: education, religion, information (dissemination of information), and the concept of ‘access.’

 

You’re probably hearing some of that now – in the news. And the reason why you would be hearing it now is because zodiacal cycles are not ‘lock tight.’ They’re not ‘exclusive.’ Like life, they’re a process. So a big part of what we’re experiencing here under Saturn’s opposition to Eris is a ‘set up’ FOR Saturn moving on into Scorpio. Some of us NEED to have failures now, and hard times now, and the experience of limitations now so that we’ll get motivated (or forced, depending) into getting out there and participate in the world on the world’s terms…not ours.

 

That last bit – the getting those who are rooted in ‘what I like, the way I want things to be/work/operate’ is the Eris in Aries part. And if you’ve had some issue ratcheting down in your life inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, ootch-by-ouch since April…the best thing you can do is heed the celestial hint.

 

If you don’t, it can only get harder from here AND you’ll be missing out on some of the most productive years of your life. If you’re over 30 (just picking that as a number), if I say that the next five years are a premier opportunity for life building, that means it’s going to be another 29 1/2 years before Saturn arrives at the zodiacal spot it’s at as I write.

Do you really want to be almost 60 before you get another opportunity?

 

WARNING #2: There are those who will persist now and who will do well for the next five years. That takes us to 2017. And in August 2017 there will be a solar eclipse at 28 Leo.

 

That may not ring a bell with you, but it does with me: everybody alive today was born with fixed star Regulus within eclipse-shot of 28 Leo.

 Fixed star Regulus in a series of photos as it is occulted.

 (photo credit: orman 99)

To make this a little more poignant, Uranus (representing sudden changes) will be at 28 Aries.

 

Uranus will station on August 3, 2017. The eclipse will occur on August 21, 2017.

 

And by then, Saturn will be in Sagittarius. In retrograde as August 2017 begins, Saturn will go stationary/direct on August 25th (four days after the eclipse) at 21 Sagittarius, perfecting the trine to 28 Leo in December 2017 just before Saturn slides into its solo sign of rulership: Capricorn.

Capricorn is about achievement or defeat.

 

So I repeat: this is a time to get right with our Self. The upsets and provocations of this time are all about getting us to let go of that which is unnecessary or improper or malfunctioning or unworkable…and it isn’t about the other person – it’s about YOU. 

We all have things we need to do now.

 

Saturn goes direct on June 25th. Mercury enters Leo on June 26th. Venus goes direct on June 27th.

Eris will go retrograde next month – late on July 19th, UT/+0. As it does so, it will be in an odd little configuration which is all about our relationship to our internal ability to discipline our Self and our values.

 

For some, this will be when choices made will send them along one path and not another. For others, this will be a test or challenge to some effort they are making to grow their life. Those who can work through the dispiriting aspects of having life not be exactly what we “want it to be” at this moment will be far, far better off in the long run than those who a.) give up, b.) insist on having their cake and eating it too, and c.) acting out.

Again, this is a lesson about US. Eris going retrograde is supposed to be a moment when we feel anything from vexation to amazement.

Life is trying to teach us something.

Will we learn?

 

More and more it seems apparent that for all the wonders of technology and the seeming ‘advances’ of our modern world…we humans…? Over thousands of years we really haven’t changed all that much.

 

Our tools change. We don’t.

 

And the better we get at building cities and infrastructure, the bigger the ‘force’ nature has to bring against us to get us to learn anything. A lot of what we humans build, we build so we don’t have to be inconvenienced – most of all by feelings of insecurity, fear and necessity.

You know…necessity, that mother of invention?

But life is about growth. So the next time you wonder why life is getting difficult, remember: our world has gotten pretty insulated. Whether your insulation is in the walls of your house, the money with which you cloak your life, the family you cling to or the rose colored glasses you wear because they look so pretty with your mortal suit of denial…just remember: life is bigger than you are. By resisting truth, by resisting honest facts, by thinking you can do what you want and that you’re ‘exempt’ or ‘outside’ life’s rules…we all do it, but when we do it we’re merely setting up a ‘cause’ which surely at some point is going to come back at us as an opposite and equal reaction.

Need I say it? Karma is a bitch!

Speaking of which, I think I hear Saturn’s call. I need to get back to some stuff I have to do so I can…well, survive!

And hopefully survive well and prosperously, fulling my greater Purpose, yes!

The next post will be on Mercury entering Leo, an important ‘shading’ to Saturn and Venus stationing and going direct.